July 2024 Grocery Challenge

Nelliegrace

We went to Aldi at just the right time and found plenty of 30% and 50% yellow-stickered fruit, veg, some trout fillets, and Jersey milk, and saved £8.20 on our shopping, paying £24.60. (Some of the 24p bananas made a banana cake.) I checked the super 6 and got unwaxed lemons to make lemon curd. 

Our coffee beans are £1.99 from Aldi, I check TKMaxx for red stickered ground coffee at £2. The Waitrose at the Dobbies Garden Centre had filter papers £1.28 for 40. We have a birthday voucher for free hot drinks and cakes for 2. 

Meat, butter, and cheese rations for the week are from the freezer.
We are having a glut of eggs, 27 from the four hens last week, so brunch includes an omelette or boiled eggs. I boil a few extra to add to a salad or picnic.

I made a kefir loaf and DH made a loaf in the breadmaker. 

We have passed on some more kefir grains, between DH’s not explaining clearly, and the other person not attending, the first lot didn’t survive, and one of my good jam jars got thrown in the recycling! 

Suffolk_lass

C_J said:

Suffolk_lass said:

. I also bought paracetamol and laxative (I am consuming virtual bucket-loads of pain relief at night, hence the laxatives). £7 for laxatives!! Goodness me, I hope this is a temporary thing. The doctor has now prescribed morphine and so these other things should diminish too

Hi @Suffolk_lass - don’t forget that morphine bungs you up terribly too, so you’ll need to continue with the laxatives. Could your doctor maybe prescribe you some Lactulose so you don’t have to fork out for expensive OTC stuff?

Thanks C_J I can't use Lactulose, and although I moan about the cost, the Senokot work really well and gently. I was taking codeine from my pain rescue pack before the morphine, so yes, I'm aware of the consequences. I won't go into details about the Lactulose but electrolyte imbalance is a factor. Thanks for thinking of me

Soontobeoap

@ travelcrystal welcome to the thread. Lots of lovely people on here with lots of great tips. 

TravelCrystal

Thanks @Soontobeoap for the welcome. 

You all look a lovely bunch 

Suffolk_lass

Yes, welcome @TravelCrystal and well done for joining in.

We all do it our own way. I moved mine from two successive months in the region of £800 down to an annual £3000. It took me years.

Now, I personally track treats and entertainment, and spending on pets and livestock (one elderly indoor cat, one small assertive dog and over a million honeybees) in my grocery spending spreadsheet but I don't include it in my GC total. It means I note when the shopping trolley is getting unbalanced by treats like ice cream or chocolate, nuts or crisps!

I separate my GC into three -

• regular GC fresh food that we will consume immediately, from the fridge, freezer or larder
• Stores - includes things for the store-cupboard; bulk,  spares, including toiletries - normally all now bought on offer (I rarely, if ever pay full price, now I've worked out the interval between offers), and things for the freezer (yellow sticker [YS], offers like 3 for £10, and the half a local lamb (annually) from my friend who rears them within a mile of us
• Direct Debit and subscriptions - includes my milkman (this keeps me away from the shops for too many top ups and the temptation I don't need), eggs (delivered weekly by the same friend that rears the lamb) and big river things - I always make sure there are five things or none, so that I get the 15% off).

Getting to know your weaknesses is a vital step. I have a tendency to hoard, and go off list when shopping in person, so I now check stock levels to manage the hoarding, and shop once a month for a big supermarket shop, compiling the list in their app and removing things as I go round, leaving non-critical things in the basket if they are not on offer, and reverse meal planning to use up stores and substitute ingredients rather than sticking to recipes. We all freeze leftovers (trying to remember to label them), with only the occasional amusing mishap (I've just read about spaghetti Curryaise by @EssexHebridean on that thread! (link above) I'm naughty in that I don't properly meal plan, I buy the offers and put them together. Not as bad as it sounds as I don't buy ready meals, other than a pizza for the freezer emergency. 

Before I stop I will just mention the freezer. It does need a list that you tick as you use and you don't need to fill it (bread helps). And do remember you have the running costs on top. I now bottle to preserve and have reduced what we keep, but I have to watch myself! Good luck!

TravelCrystal

Many thanks for those tips @Suffolk_lass, will have a good read later. Off on a little bike ride shortly with DH. Lunch to be paid from July budget 

sarahj1986

sarahj1986 said:

I’m late but put me on for 

£450

that’s to go from 29th June to 11th August. 

Family of 4, my son is now on 3 meals a day. We go away on 12th August and I really want to keep spending to a minimum 

£162/450 spent already. The freezer is full. Next big shop is next Wednesday 10th

£30 spent 

this is from the past few days 

£20 Morrisons. I’m one of those saddos that stay up watch the election results. However I can’t do it alone so I got a few snacks. I also had a free chocolate bar to get as it’s my birthday month. I also had a 5000 points bonus which is effectively £5 off. That’s saved in my account for another day. Morrisons is expensive for a lot of things but for some items on offer especially what I got it’s cheaper than Tesco.

£5 reduced meat in M&S 

£5 meal deal and cookies. Ok ok I should have but this was Friday when I was so tired I wanted a quick fix lunch 

£192/450

may need a few bits between now and 10th. Pay day 20th I’ll do a big shop then. I’ve still got quite a bit of meat and fish in the freezer 

Pennypincin

Around £16 spent in Tesco and a greengrocer yesterday, mainly on vegetables.
I've £8.60 left, but am aiming to save £5 of it

TravelCrystal

Special treat of lunch out today
Annual visit to a Cider farm, music c/o a shanty band and food
Spent £24 on 2 x Pasta Bolognaise and flatbreads.
Also bought a tray of eggs earlier from our local farm. £6.50 and Jerk sauce £1.50 for recipe later next week.
Spends so far this month £96.76/£400

 Omitted to mention the £400 originally spent on meat for the freezer is half a lamb and half a pig, and a quarter of a cow all from a nearby farm shop. I'm hoping this will last us until after Christmas.
We also eat a bit of chicken in between, at the moment the freezer's are saying no   
Looking forward to some nice roast lamb tomorrow
T.C

SuperMoose

Just wanted to add to the talk about Aldi and taking YS items through the self service tills. I was told by the member of staff on the self service tills that you have to get them to put through YS items. Otherwise you could put all your shopping through as YS

Aldi don't have barcodes for the reduced price unlike most of the other supermarkets. When you go through a staffed till with reduced items they scan the barcode and then press a button on the till for 50% off etc.

Hope that makes sense